Today's Internet is used to perform an ever-increasing number and variety of online tasks. Consequently, the ability to control online tasks has never been more important. Users want to be able to control the actions that applications may take on their behalf. For instance, users want to be able to control online actions taken on their behalf for privacy and security reasons. As another example, users want to control online actions that involve accessing the users' profile information, financial information, and preferences. Parents want control over the online actions performed by their children. Administrators of online accounts want control over users' online actions. Schools and libraries want to control what users do while online. In essence, users want to be able to require applications to obtain consent to perform certain online actions on their behalf or the behalf of others before the actions are taken.
Many online actions today already require consent before the online task can be completed. Laws have been passed that mandate that Web sites control the performance of certain online actions. For example, in 1998, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) was passed to prevent Web sites from gathering personal information from children under the age of 13 without the approval of a consenting adult. Web sites often require obtaining consent from users to terms of use the first time a user accesses the site and anytime the terms of use change. Such laws and requirements have developed a need for ways for Web sites to increase their control over online actions that applications perform on behalf of users.
In summary, for various reasons, a need exists for ways of controlling online actions, not only on user online actions, but also the online actions of applications, such as Web services. As the demand for controlling online actions and providing consent to applications to perform online actions grows, so too does the need for a system for controlling online actions and consent for online actions.